


Not easy to get rid of

by HayamaRei



Category: Torchwood
Genre: COE Fix-it, M/M, my version of what happened with Ianto, the hub still exists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-03-06 17:48:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3143147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HayamaRei/pseuds/HayamaRei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ianto Jones died. He felt it, his life leaving him as he was in Jack's arms. He was happy to go that way, even if leaving his captain made him sad, this was certainly not the worst way to die. He said his final words, took his final breath and fell into oblivion. But then a strange feeling came, as if the ground cracked beneath him and swallowed him whole.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not easy to get rid of

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Six hundred years and a few planets away . . .](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2796512) by [kate882](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate882/pseuds/kate882). 



Ianto Jones died. He felt it, his life leaving him as he was in Jack's arms. He was happy to go that way, even if leaving his captain made him sad, this was certainly not the worst way to die. He said his final words, took his final breath and fell into oblivion. But then a strange feeling came, as if the ground cracked beneath him and swallowed him whole. Was that how dying felt? Did Jack go trough this every time he died? It was terrifying. Ianto tried to scream but no sound escaped his mouth. His brain felt as if it was being squashed under a heavy weight and his ears buzzed with a sound he couldn't describe even if he tried. 

The noise got louder and louder eventually numbing out all his other senses. Ianto squeezed his eyes shut, not that it changed anything, it was pitch black all around him. Then, suddenly, everything stopped. The feeling that he was falling, the pressure in his head, the noise in his ears, everything. As his senses slowly came back Ianto felt something solid underneath him and distant rumors reached his ears. Normal rumors, not that deafening screech from moments ago. Then someone was talking but it took Ianto some time to distinguish separate words.  
"...right mate? Rough night out? Sure seems so." A male voice called.  
Ianto forced his eyes open. His vision was blurry at first but then focused onto something green right in front of his eyes. Grass. Was this how the other side looked like?  
He moved to get up and all his body ached as if he had ran for hours and his muscles were sore. The man in front of him offered his hand for help and Ianto took it with what he hoped was a grateful smile. "Where am I?" He asked and his voice sounded hoarse.  
The stranger started laughing. "You boozed up nice. Cardiff of course!"  
Ianto started looking around rapidly, panic rising somewhere in his chest. "Cardiff?" He repeated unbelievingly and the stranger just nodded. Nothing around looked a bit like the Cardiff he knew. He continued to look from side to side. What the hell had happened?  
"Something wrong, mate?" The stranger asked, the cheerful note in his voice now replaced with concern. Ianto turned his eyes back to him and gripped his shoulders.  
"What year is it?" He demanded, staring at the poor man with probably a crazy look on his face. Fear flashed in the other's eyes but Ianto just gripped tighter. He had to know.  
"Twenty seventy-one. Is-is something wrong?" The stranger tried to ask but his words fell upon deaf ears as Ianto took off running. That wasn't happening.  
Soon he started figuring his way around. Things had changed but he could recognize his surroundings if he looked hard enough. 

At last he arrived at the square above the hub. It was beyond recognizable. The water tower was gone, new buildings had occupied some of the space, making the square smaller.  
Ianto hurried to the hub's main entrance, thanking heavens the small office was still standing. But it was nothing more than an old abandoned shack by now. No one had even bothered to lock the door. The reception desk he worked behind was long gone as well as everything else. The mechanism opening the hidden door leading toward the hub was broken, but Ianto knew how to open it manually. But as soon as he set his foot into what had been his second home Ianto almost started to regret he did.  
The whole place was empty. All equipment, chairs, computers, even nails in the walls were gone. He checked everywhere. Even all but 2-3cells were destroyed. The only thing that stood as a reminder that all his memories were real was the old now battered couch and the small table in front of it. Ianto walked to it slowly and sank in it. It felt different. It was dirty and had holes here and there. How could this be the same couch he had cuddled next to Jack just a week prior?  
Jack. His heart pounded. Where was Jack now? Torchwood was obviously gone so what had happened to it's captain? For a brief moment Ianto imagined him dying in the infected air. Dying for good. But he quickly brushed that off. Jack had been trough lot worse and still came back. No virus could bring him down so easily.  
Then he noticed. There were two empty glasses on the table. Probably left there by some drunkards after they found the place by accident. The thought of someone else, someone from the outside getting in and using the place as they wished made Ianto's heart ache. The hub was supposed to be sacred.  
He jumped to his feet. He felt dirty. The couch was dirty and he could feel it's dirt on himself. Not knowing what else to do Ianto ran up the stairs, thank goodness they were still there, and straight to where Jack's office used to be. The place was now just a big blank concrete spot. Ianto broke. Tears streamed down his face as he looked around. There was nothing, not even the slightest thing to remind him of Jack. Nothing except that old dirty couch, but even that felt off. He slid down the nearest wall, put his head between his legs and cried until he had no more tears left. Exhausted by all the crying he fell asleep but made sure to do so right where Jack's heavy desk used to be.

About three days later, when he actually found the strength to lift himself from the floor without the urge to vomit or breaking down for few more hours of crying Ianto decided it was time to get a grip. He figured out what had happened to him. The Rift had opened and taken him somehow. Just like all the people in that hospital Jack had created. He knew he had been lucky to pass trough without any severe damage.  
After leaving the hub for the first time since his arrival, Ianto found a public bathroom where he could finally take a shower. Thank God they still used the same currency. After giving himself a nice scrub and washing all the dirt from everything that had happened, he was left with some spare money he planned on spending for food. The last time he had eaten had been ages ago. 

He found a cheap looking fast food restaurant and got himself a salad. His stomach wouldn't be okay with anything else after days of not eating anything. On his way out his eyes caught an add pinned to the wall. A local delivering company looked for workers. No previous experience needed.  
It didn't take Ianto long to understand that the world hadn't changed that much in the years. They now knew about the existence of aliens and had some more advanced technologies but it wasn't something drastic he couldn't cope with.  
The company didn't ask many questions, didn't pry about his past much and most importantly didn't ask for any proof about his made up past. Soon enough he was given a bike and a whole bunch of stuff to carry around the city. 

Ianto continued living in the hub. With his first paycheck, which came a week after starting, he got himself an inflatable bed, a cheap pillow and a blanket. The rest of the money was spent on new clothes, food and a membership card for the public bathroom since no hot water would reach the hub (he had managed to get the only sink left in the place running but with cold water only). 

He was trying to settle down. To blend in with these new people in this new world. He had no other choice. Torchwood was no more, and even if it still existed he had no means of finding it. Everyone he ever knew was either dead or really old, and Ianto didn't have the courage to actually check. And Jack... Jack was somewhere. But there was no way for him to find out where. Ianto lived off a minimal salary and had little to no access to any kinds of computers. Jack could no longer even be on the planet for all he knew. Maybe he was with the Doctor. With nothing to keep him on Earth what stopped him from jumping to the opportunity of new worlds?  
Ianto hadn't given up, though. He had it all planned. First to get on his feet and then, when he could afford it, find someone who could track his captain down. He just hoped it wouldn't be too late.

It had been a year since Ianto woke on the green grass in a time that he didn't belong to. He had pretty much settled down, managing to get himself a proper bed, chair and a table and some cutlery not that he used it much, a small plastic wardrobe where he put all his clothes, most of them jeans and t-shirts, driving a bike with a suit all day wasn't very practical. He still did have a suit or two hanging around.  
He kept the table and the couch but he never used them. They became an altar, a reminder of what once was but would never be again. He even left the glasses on to remind himself that despite everything his sacred place wasn't so sacred after all. All his stuff rested where Jack's office used to be.  
The cells, at least the ones that weren't completely destroyed served perfectly as a fridge. It was freezing down there, with no systems to manage them. He kept few things there, usually just drinks and sometimes fruit. He did most of his eating outside.  
That day, payment day to be exact, Ianto allowed himself a treat. A nice bottle of red wine. The last time he had good wine, not some cheap imitation of it, had been before all this. So, after work which surprisingly he finished around noon and his boss dismissed him for the day, he dropped by a store, got what he was looking for and headed for the hub. Deciding not to drink it just yet, better save it for the evening, Ianto took it down to the cells where it would chill and be perfect for consummation later. Somehow on his way out of it he managed to knock over the box of oranges he had gotten earlier that week, spilling them everywhere. It took him five minutes to collect them all, because two managed to roll under a crack in the wall and Ianto had to stick his arm there and get them out. Which wasn't as easy as it sounded. 

When he finally walked out of the cells room something was off. The big iron door was open. Ianto was sure he had closed it when he came back from work. Which meant someone had found the place. Some drunkard had found it and decided to use it as a place to safely get high. Ready to fight whoever had dared to enter Ianto stormed further into the main part only to freeze after not more than five steps. A man in a blue greatcoat was standing beside the "sacred table", holding a bottle of vodka in his hand. Surprised, Ianto took a step back which caused him to stumble and fall on his butt.  
The noise caused the man to turn around and there he was staring at the face of a man he didn't think he would, or was ready to meet anytime soon. He was forced out of his shocked state when the bottle was suddenly dropped on the table and Jack Harkness was standing two steps away from him, a gun pointed at his head.  
"What are you?" Jack spat the words, his voice as cold as the look in his eyes.  
Ianto didn't know what to say or do. He could barely process the whole situation so he stared at the man not saying anything.  
Jack tightened his hold on the gun and actually loaded it. "I'm gonna ask you one more time - What are you and what are you doing here?"  
Ianto's brain caught up with the situation and he raised his hands to show the other he wasn't a treat. "It's me, sir." He said quietly.  
"I'm not in the mood for games. Talk." To be honest Ianto got scared. Jack had never seemed so angry before. And it was that kind of anger you only see in the person's eyes while their body is completely still.  
"But it's me. Ianto. Ianto Jones, I came-"  
"I buried Ianto Jones sixty-three years ago! He's dead, I saw him die. Now who, what, the hell are you?"  
Ianto moved to get up, he didn't like this position. He could do nothing to convince Jack he was really himself while sitting on the floor. He held his hands up high the whole time as a way to show he was in complete surrender.  
"Look at me. See. It's me. You know it is." He said pleadingly. That was so not how he imagined their reunion.  
Jack closed his eyes for a moment and breathed out. "You can't be him. I saw his body, held it. I watched as he was buried into the ground. He died." He sounded less angry and much more tired this time. Sad and tired. It made Ianto's eyes water.  
"I did. I felt it. Like falling into nothingness. But then something happened. Something cracked. The Rift, Jack. I don't know how but I fell trough it and it brought me here." He tried to sound as sincere as humanly possible, to make his words reach the captain, make him understand.  
Jack hesitated. He stared at him for a long time without moving, without saying anything. Finally he loosened up his grip on the gun, not quite putting it down just yet but enough so that Ianto could allow himself to move closer. He still stayed in the range of the gun, as a way to reassure Jack he still had the upper hand and he would be the one to decide the outcome. Jack searched his eyes for few more moments before muttering "Is it really you?"  
Ianto barely had time to nod before the gun was dropped to the ground and Jack's arms were wrapped around him in a hug so tight he feared he could crack a rib. But that didn't stop him from returning it, he hugged back as tight as he could because that was all he wanted since he came to this place. He wanted things to be okay again and now they were.  
After what seemed ages Jack finally pulled away, but only enough that they could meet each other's eyes.  
"I thought I had lost you. Forever." Jack whispered and his eyes were full with tears.  
Ianto couldn't help but smile. "I'm sorry sir, I'm not easy to get rid of."  
"Good." Jack returned the smile before locking their lips in a desperate kiss that said what Jack didn't get the chance say out loud. 'I love you, too.'


End file.
